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According to a recent survey, young people in Germany are consuming less and less alcohol (symbol photo)
Photo: Silas Stein / dpa
Overall, young people in Germany drink less often – and not so often to the point of intoxication.
This is the result of a survey by the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA).
Accordingly, regular alcohol consumption among young people has fallen to its lowest level since records began.
According to the BZgA, 8.7 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds said they drank alcohol at least once a week last year.
In 2011 it was around 14 percent and in the first survey in 1979 it was still a quarter of those questioned.
The long-term trend for regular drinking among young adults (18 to 25 years) is also declining and was 32 percent in 2021.
Ten years ago the proportion was a good 40 percent and at the end of the 1970s it was 66 percent.
According to the study, smoking is also becoming increasingly outdated.
The proportion of young smokers has fallen steadily since 1997 from 28 percent then to 6 percent now.
83 percent of 12 to 17 year olds even stated that they had never smoked in their lives.
The proportion of smokers among young adults has also declined over the long term, but has stagnated at around 30 percent since 2014.
Half of those aged 18 to 25 have used cannabis at least once.
This is the highest value since the 1970s.
Around 9 percent of the young people surveyed had experienced cannabis; the previous high was in 2004 at 15 percent.
The BZgA regularly examines the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis by adolescents and young adults in Germany.
For the representative 2021 study, around 7,000 people aged 12 to 25 were interviewed by telephone between April and June 2021.
fek/dpa